Benois Madonna

• c. 1478
• Oil on canvas, transferred from panel
• 19 1/2 x 12 1/2 in (49.5 x 31.5 cm)
• Hermitage, St Petersburg

Artist    Raphael
Year    c. 1506–1507
Type    oil on yew
Dimensions    27.9 cm × 22.4 cm (11.0 in × 8.8 in)
Location    National Gallery, London

"Studies of these sketches and the painting itself suggest that Leonardo was concentrating on the idea of sight. At that time it was thought that human eyes exhibited rays to cause vision with a central beam being the most important. The child is thought to be guiding his mother's hands into his central vision.

For centuries, Madonna and Child with Flowers was considered lost. In 1909, the architect Leon Benois sensationally exhibited it in Saint Petersburg as part of his father-in-law's collection. The painting had been apparently brought from Italy to Russia by the notable connoisseur Alexander Korsakov in the 1790s. Upon Korsakov's death, it was sold by his son to the Astrakhan merchant Sapozhnikov for 1400 roubles and so passed by inheritance to the Benois family in 1880. After many a squabble regarding attribution, Leon Benois sold the painting to the Imperial Hermitage Museum in 1914. The purchase was made by Ernst Friedrich von Liphart who was the curator of paintings who had correctly identified the artist.[3] (Ernst's father Karl was an expert on de Vinci)." - Wikipedia 

This painting was copied by Raphael  (the Madonna of the Pinks)